• 4380 Terran Summer Olympics came to an end with 259 gold, 258 silver, and 261 bronze medal won by athletes from all around Terra.

• Valruzian National Olympic Committee has summarised the Olympics as a great success for Terra, and an outstanding success for Nowogard and Valruzia.

• Indralan athletes won the most gold medals with 25 gold medals (19 silver and 16 bronze), while the Valruzian athletes won the largest amount of medals - 62 (22 gold, 22 silver, and 18 bronze medals) - and lead the medal table, followed by Trigunia with 61 medals (21 gold, 19 silver, and 21 bronze medals).

• LOT Group expands aggressively in Seleya with the takeover of airBaltusia, becomes Terra's largest airline holding. Analyst say that this may not be the only purchase of the company this year.

The government of The Free Kingdom of Hawu Mumenhes sends the condolences of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Esintsundu, the Imperial Family, the Peoples of the Empire, and the Kingdoms under Her Imperial Majesty's rule to Her imperial Majesty's sister-empress, Taeyang Yoon-Jin of the Kyo, on the passing of Yoon Jin's mother, late Taeyang Gao of Dankuk. The Empress Esintsundu also offers well wishes to the people of Dankuk as they embark on the Era of Enduring Peace. (Summer 4371, contemporary with the Passing of Taeyang the Great)

1. Aristotle Maximilian, submits petition for the assembly of a new political entity, Partistos, hoping to gain momentum in Kalopia's upcoming elections.

2. Son of prominent business leader and CEO of Kalopian Petroleum Corporation, nation's largest energy provider, found dead on the outskirts of Paiania, in Minosasa. Preliminary reports are incoherent.

3. Kalopian National Airlines commercial airliner lands on Kifissos river immediately after take-off, due to engine failure. No deaths, 3 injured, including a baby. The National Civic Aviation Organisation begins thorough investigations.

Lucile Corriveau, a retired Mordusian investment banker who worked most of her life in the financial district of the Zardic capital, Beleco, has written on her online blog that "it is common knowledge in top investment circles in Beleco that insiders at the Zardic Institute of International Relations supply advance copies of their economic reports to currency speculators in return for bribes". She continued:

The Institute's economic reports, where they value the economy of each nation in Terra, are highly respected and have a significant economic impact - they can literally end up changing the plans of banks, businesses, governments, you-name-it.

For centuries now, it's been the pattern that just after the report is issued, there are jolts in the currency exchange markets. If you've got that information before it's released, that's incredibly valuable and you can make a lot of money out of it.

The financial world is waiting in eager anticipation for an economic rankings report right now. Well, just as an example, lets say the report was to show Zardugal's economy was doing better than expected, and Vanuku's economy was doing worse than expected. What would happen just after the report was published? You guessed it. The ZAR would go up against the VAN.

Now what will happen is, someone at the Institute will tip a currency speculator off about what the report will say, and the speculator will then change all of his VANs into ZARs. And then, after the report is published, the ZAR will go up against the VAN and - hey presto! - he's made himself rich!

Nobody admits this goes on, of course, but we all know it does. The people at the Institute are as human, well as corrupt really, as everybody else in the financial world. I don't judge them too harshly, to be honest. They don't get paid nearly enough for the work they do.

Corriveau needs to Put Up or Shut Up says Zardic Institute of International Relations Official

User-Taphmēi-Hboui Selasie, the Director of Artanian Affairs for the Zardic Institute of International Relations, urged Mordusian banker Lucile Corriveau to share evidence of insider trading with Institute investigators. 'Ms. Corriveau's allegations are very disturbing and go to the heart of the Institute's integrity and independence,' said Mr. Selasie, a Hawu economist currently serving as one the institute's five division directors. 'We are determined to get to the bottom of this, and ask that Ms. Corriveau contact the Institute immediately to speak with our investigators.' Corriveau's allegations come on the heels of diplomatic controversy surrounding Mordusian officials' charges of score rigging at the 4380 Summer Olympics. (December 4385

OOC: Thanks for responding! One small clarification, though: the claims about the last Olympics being rigged were made by Frederick Manningham-Buller, who is leader of a fringe far-right Mordusian party. He's got nothing to do with either the Mordusian government or the Mordusian National Olympic Committee.

They must surely know I can't possibly reveal my sources, because the information I was given was given to me on grounds of strictest confidence. But seriously, for anyone who knows the Zardic Institute well, what I've said is nothing new at all. This has been going on for years. Everyone who has worked there for long enough knows it goes on.

She also claimed "I know the identity of a Mordusian politician who regularly receives insider information from the Institute as a favour in return for helping to secure a big research contract with the Mordusian government some years back", but insisted "I couldn't possibly divulge any further information, because I need to protect my sources".